OZONE PARK, Queens (PIX11) – For almost four months, postal carriers have been passing by 97-05 103rd Ave., an apartment building in Ozone Park, Queens, without making any attempt to deliver the mail. The tenants have been forced to go to the local post office, 10 blocks aways, to pick up their mail. Why?
Landlords Mike Tummolo and his son Mike Jr. say instead of the postman carrying keys to open the front doors of the apartment buildings on his route, as he used to, in November the Postal Service began requiring a box on the outside of the apartment buildings where the key to the front door could be kept. The Tummolos put the box in, but the Postal Service said it’s too far away from the door. The landlords says they were never told where the box had to be and it’s too cold to move it now.
“The cement doesn’t set well when it’s that cold”, said Mike, Jr., who sought to work out a middle ground with the post office to ensure delivery, and then move the box when the weather got better.
But the postal service said no, and has refused to deliver mail to the building ever since. The surveillance cameras show the carriers walking past the building, past the key keeper box, never stopping.
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